Gresham's Hogan Butte, with views of Columbia River Gorge and Cascade Range, may become nature park

Gresham's
Hogan Butte may one day rival the region's best viewpoints, but for now it's a
tangle of trees and patchy meadows with no developed public access.

That could
start to change later this year, when the city competes for a state grant worth
up to $750,000 that would pay for designing and constructing the first phase of
a park on the butte at the southern edge of Gresham.

The Gresham
City Council voted March 4 to apply for a 2014 Local Government Grant through
Oregon State Parks & Recreation. A decision on grant applications is
expected in September.

The Hogan
Butte Nature Park has been many years in the making. The city started acquiring
land nearly a quarter century ago, using money voters approved with the passage
of a 1990 city bond measure and two later Metro bonds. With last year's
purchase of another parcel using Metro dollars, the city now owns 61.5 acres on
top and around the butte.

The council
adopted a master plan for the proposed park six years ago, but it hasn't had
the money to build an access road, trails, viewpoints, picnic facilities and
other amenities that would transform the undeveloped hilltop into what Steve
Fancher calls the "crown jewel" among Gresham's city parks.

Fancher, the
city's environmental services manager, estimated the total park cost at about
$3.5 million in his recent report to the council. If the city is awarded the
grant, it not only would enable construction to begin but also could help the
city qualify for additional matching grants, potentially through Metro's Nature
in the Neighborhoods program, Fancher told the council.